In each class I teach, I attempt to engage and empower students in their own learning. Reaching back to my experiences as an undergraduate and graduate student, I found that I was most engaged when the teacher was genuinely excited about the material and shared their excitement with the class. I strive to convey my excitement for biology to my students whether I am lecturing about elasmobranch evolution or describing the process of oxygen transport in the blood. I believe that when students are interested and excited about the material being covered they will be inspired to ask questions, learn material, and discover information on their own. Ultimately, I want students to do more than just memorize facts. I want my students to use what I teach them in class as a spring board that allows them to ask increasingly more complex questions about the world around them, and become the type of scientists that are always curious and creating testable hypotheses.
My current and previous positions have enabled me to experiment with different teaching techniques and taught me many things. Today’s college students face a situation where their limited time must be divided among family, social, financial, and academic pursuits. With so many demands on their time, it is essential to keep students engaged in the material and focused on the overall message of the class. To accomplish this I use several techniques: 1) increasing student involvement through the use of interactive discussions and novel approaches to complex topics; 2) identifying misconceptions and misunderstandings about the lecture material; and 3) reinforcing lecture topics through research papers and projects.
My current and previous positions have enabled me to experiment with different teaching techniques and taught me many things. Today’s college students face a situation where their limited time must be divided among family, social, financial, and academic pursuits. With so many demands on their time, it is essential to keep students engaged in the material and focused on the overall message of the class. To accomplish this I use several techniques: 1) increasing student involvement through the use of interactive discussions and novel approaches to complex topics; 2) identifying misconceptions and misunderstandings about the lecture material; and 3) reinforcing lecture topics through research papers and projects.